Uni Design II
The Uni Design II is the first major revision to the Uni Design, changing about 20% of the specifications of the final version the the first Uni Design (not counting the Cultural traditions section). The original Uni design has proven to be remarkably stable with approximately 95% of the specifications outside the "cultural traditions section" being the same as the original version even after going through over 100 changes over the years since first implemented. While not specifically planned that way, ships designed according to the Uni Design II are considered to be TL 9. Preample Admiral McElligott stated that with the addition of so many new societies since the first UNI"versal" design intitiative to bring all ship designs on "one page" and with the doors wide open to the Local group and beyond, a second design initiative needed to be started. The Narth Supreme and Mothermachine suggested that with the anouncement of the Science Council, that the Union had officially passed all markers to make it a Tech level nine (TL 9) society, a fleet wide upgrade should be done after the Uni Design initative picked and identified the next Uni Standard. Three Approaches Three approaches perculated to the top and each approach recieved considerable funding to create a fleet wide workable concept (from shuttle to Dreadnought) and built a prototype battle ship for the next millenia. *The Seenian Approach - under the Auspice of Dr. Foster *Uni Design 2.0 - under the Auspice of Admiral Heinrich Donnerwetter *Big Fish Project - under the Auspice of Admiral Mc Elligott the whole initiative is supervised by Commodore Archibald Bull, lead of the CSDB Background In 5045, the Capital Ship Development Bureau (CSDB) was tasked by Fleet Command to outline the next generation of ships. For the first time since the Uni Design had been adopted, Fleet Command requested that instead of restricting themselves to designs that would be just have incremental changes compared to existing capital ships, to also consider the idea of building Lyrec and Karmat class ships from scratch, as well as consider new designs the size of those two ships. After 6 months of study, the CSDB received the results of USS Dominator's first test as the carrier for a rapid reaction force. With the favorable results of that test, and the history of the USS Devastator, the CSDB proposed to Fleet Command to dedicate at least a portion of their construction resources towards implementing fleet-wide the concept of a fast ship carrying reaction forces. While the concept was set, initially there was no decision on centering these forces around between Union built Karmat or equivalent sized new ship design. There was considerable debate at Fleet Command on both the size and what the force it carried would consist of, with proposals ranging from 200 conventional battleship sized auxiliaries and 10 USS Devastator sized ships to a force one tenth that size. A number of proposals included only conventional or Devi sized ships. In late 5045, Fleet Command decided to standardize the rapid reaction force as one carrier ship, one Lyrec sized ship and 40 conventionally sized ships. The decision on whether to use Uni Design ships. Seenian Design or a new design for the ships in the force was left up to the CSDB. After consulting with some of the engineers responsible for designing the refits of the Karmat, Lyrec and Marantz class ships it was decided to do a major revision to the Uni Design that was designated Uni Design II. The departure from the original Uni Design affected approximately 20% of the systems described in the latest revision of the Uni Design which was 95% identical to the original specifications. Of the changed systems, 20% had been tested on the USS Tigershark during it's first two missions, 15% were Seenian designs that had recently been fully understood, 40% came from societies that were not a part of the Union at the time the Uni Design was developed and 25% had been developed within the Union after the Uni design was put into place, and had been tested on other ships. First Uni Design II classes The first two classes designed according to the Uni Design II were the Tyranno Class Battlegroup Carrier, which was loosely based on the refit Karmat class and the Lyrec II Class which was loosely based on the refit Lyrec Class. In both cases, the external appearance was nearly the same as the original, even though internally there were significant differences. After some issues found while building the prototypes of those designs were corrected, two classes of battleships were designed - the first with a higher top speed for short time periods (a week or so at top speed) intended for members of the Rapid Reaction Force, and the second one with top speed comparable to conventional Uni Design ships. A variation of the second battleship was developed into a HALD class explorer to accompany the Marantz II class Large HALD Explorer (loosely based on the Marantz class.) Future plans After 5050 all new classes of Capital Ship must conform to the new Uni Design II. No new Capital Ships are to be started after 5060 that don't conform to the Uni Design II standards. While the Uni Design II will not be be enforced on new classes of smaller combat ships as well as those considered to be auxiliaries have until 5075, the respective design bureaus are highly encouraged to adopt the new standard as soon as possible. Starting in 5100 all new ship construction is expected to comply with the Uni Design II standard. Refits to existing ships that are expected to still be in commission after 5200 are also to be made in order to better comply with Uni Design II. After the Assembly decision of 5048 in regards to the Uni Design II, Admiral McElligott instructed all Union Navy design bureaus to examine the requirements to refit the current fleet in order to comply with the Uni Design II. As a result, some classes that had been expected to be retired between 5050 and 5150 have been granted an extension to their time in service while some other classes will be retired early (One class of destroyers was cancelled after only 100 of the several million planned were commissioned due to the difficulties in refitting that particular design.) Note Upgrade the entire fleet to Tech Level 9 and creating a new design and tech standard was strongly recommended by Admiral McElligott and in a rare agreement fully supported by Admiral Stahl. It was officially ratified and made into an official Assembly decision in 5048 (the decision was also supported by the Wise Men, Mothermachine and Narth Supreme) The Assembly appropriated an unprecedented 45 percent of the Union GDP to this, making it the largest and costliest non war project of the Union since the Bridge. Category:Armed Forces - Union Category:Union Navy